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Damion Reid

Damion Reid hailing from West Covina, California a city east of Los Angeles. He is the son of well-respected bassist and astute operatic singer and teacher. By the age of three, Damion was already playing in church. It was around the age of twelve that Damion began being mentored by the world-renowned drummer Billy Higgins. During these formative years Billy's spirit for life and music was deeply seeded in Damion's fertile mind. Seeing Damion's ability to grasp the music both, analytically and conceptually it wasn't long before Billy invited him to be a part of his drum collective. As he began to mature musically he found himself frequenting Billy's club “The World Stage,” learning and playing with the likes of Billy Childs, George Bohanon and Oscar Brashear.

As Damion continued to cultivate his love for music through his high school years, he managed school life with professional obligations. Damion graduated High School and made the move to Boston, Massachusetts New England Conservatory of Music where he spent time with Cecil McBee, Danilo Perez, Fred Buda and George Russell as well as his musical peers. It was while in Boston between the years of 1998 and 1999 that he received the prestigious Alan Dawson scholarship. He then was accepted into the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of Southern California. Soon finding himself trekking to New York City to attend The New School. He then began performing and touring alongside Greg Osby, Terence Blanchard, Robert Glasper, Steve Lehman, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Jacky Terrasson, Ravi Coltrane, Reggie Workman, Marcus Belgrave, Lauryn Hill, Robert Hurst, Bilal, Meshell Ndegeocello, Jason Moran, Mark Shim, Mark Turner, Chihiro Yamanaka, Steve Coleman, Bunky Green and many others.

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Album Review

Dan Rosenboom: Polarity

Read "Polarity" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


On this album, trumpeter Dan Rosenboom and his quartet engage in a free-wheeling session which comes off as a modern update of Wayne Shorter releases such as The All-Seeing Eye (Blue Note, 1966). He engages in playful genre-crossing and experimentation here which incorporate the sensibilities of hip-hop and ambient music as well as modern jazz. The album's key track is the marathon opener, “The Age of Snakes" in which Rosenboom's trumpet and Gavin Templeton's alto saxophone lazily float ...

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Album Review

Dan Rosenboom: Polarity

Read "Polarity" reviewed by Pat Youngspiel


Recently, Los Angeles-based trumpeter Dan Rosenboom has been experimenting with somewhat freer and edgier realms of improvisation, giving doomy metal influences a go on Trio Subliminal 2 (Orenda Records, 2022), and indulging high-energy trio interplay with plenty of delay effects and other sonic manipulation on Refraction (Orenda Records, 2021). Not to mention the opulent The Complete Boom Sessions (Orenda Records, 2022), which captured over 400-minutes, live to tape, recorded over five gigs at one of Los Angeles' premiere hubs for ...

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Album Review

John Escreet: Seismic Shift

Read "Seismic Shift" reviewed by Mark Corroto


John Escreet's recording Seismic Shift, the pianist's first trio recording, might be the case for the return of warning labels on packaging. Not that there are explicit lyrics or violent images, it is just that the 52 minutes of music contained here are quite tempestuous and unrelenting. By design. Escreet is known for his wide-ranging interests in creative music. He has recorded in both the acoustic and electric realms, performing on instruments including the harpsichord, synthesizers, Fender Rhodes ...

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Album Review

Steve Lehman & Sélébéyone: Xaybu: The Unseen

Read "Xaybu: The Unseen" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Alto saxophonist Steve Lehman debuted his Sélébéyone project in 2016 with a self-titled release on the Pi Recordings label. It was nothing short of revolutionary; an amalgamation of jazz improvisation and globalized hip-hop, it was an intrepid declaration. Originally a septet, Sélébéyone returns as a quintet on Xaybu: The Unseen. The five current members are from the original formation, with bassist Drew Gress and pianist Carlos Homs absent from the sophomore outing. Lehman is a renaissance artist; composer, ...

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Album Review

Mark Small: One Day

Read "One Day" reviewed by Edward Blanco


Saxophonist Mark Small is an active performer and educator teaching at Miami-Dade College and New World School for the Arts. He also serves as an instructor in other programs throughout the Miami community, in addition to his time spent in the New York jazz scene. He brings his considerable knowledge and talents to the fore on his first solo recording of One Day, where he presents eight original compositions penned over many years, fulfilling one of his major musical dreams ...

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Album Review

Liberty Ellman: Last Desert

Read "Last Desert" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Guitarist Liberty Ellman has been doing valuable work in recent years as a sideman for musicians such as Henry Threadgill, Stephan Crump and Myra Melford. Once in a while he also puts out his own music as a leader. Inspired by a marathon race that takes place in Antarctica, the music on this disc is a constantly moving bundle of sounds with some resemblance to Threadgill's recent work in its use of tuba and its overall jangling ensemble ...

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Album Review

Liberty Ellman: Last Desert

Read "Last Desert" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Guitarist Liberty Ellman doesn't release many albums as a leader. Last Desert is only his fifth in more than twenty years, and fourth for Pi Recordings, following 2015's Radiate. But that doesn't mean he isn't a busy artist. He can be heard with JD Allen, Jason Robinson, Myra Melford's Snowy Egret, Stephan Crump's Rosetta Trio and, of course, Henry Threadgill's Zooid. He also produces music, mixes and masters recordings. Those last three crafts may explain why his recordings as a ...

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Polarity

Orenda Records
2023

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Xaybu: The Unseen

Pi Recordings
2022

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Seismic Shift

Whirlwind Recordings
2022

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Last Desert

Pi Recordings
2020

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One Day

Self Produced
2020

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The People I Love

Pi Recordings
2019

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